PayPal (Hot!)

Dell.ca has hot deal for you this morning! The Vostro 1220 12.1" notebook with a P8600 processor, 3GB RAM, and a 250GB 7200RPM hard drive with free fall sensor is $749.00. If you checkout with PayPal, you can get $50 cash back, too. Students heading back to school will definitely want to give this a second look.

Windows Vista Home Basic
Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 (2.4GHz, 3MB L2 Cache, 1066MHz FSB) 25w
Obsidian Black
12.1" WXGA LCD Display with TrueLife
Integrated 1.3MP Webcam and Digital Mic with webcam and video chat software
3GB DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz, 2 DIMM
250GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive with Free Fall Sensor
Obsidian Black with 12.1" WXGA LCD Display with TrueLife
8X DVD+/-RW DVD+/-R Roxio and Cyberlink PowerDVD DX 8.2
Dell Wireless 1397 802.11b/g Mini Card
4-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery

The P8600, 3GB RAM, and hard drive are nice to see on the hardware side. Upgrade wise, you might want to consider Vista Home Premium ($30) to qualify for Windows 7 down the road, and a 6-cell battery ($60). A review at PCAdvisor.co.uk mentions good battery life and speed. They conclude that "if you want a small laptop but yearn for more performance than a netbook can provide, the Dell Vostro 1220 is an excellent option". We're in full agreement with that assessment.

Overall, $699 (give or take, since you do pay the tax on $749 before getting the PayPal cash back) is a very impressive price for a P8600 equipped 12" notebook. A nearly identical configuration was $799 two weeks ago (it had Wireless N) and that was considered pretty hot already!